Emilia Russu wiwi jury If Only You Moldova 2017

Frequently dated and often bizarre, the offerings in Moldova’s Eurovision selection never fail to make us say WTF? So the Wiwi Jury, our in-house panel of music unprofessionals, are thrilled to be in Chisinau reviewing the songs from Moldova’s national selection, O melodie pentru Europa 2017. The next singer in their sights is Emilia Russu, who returns with the ballad “If Only You”. Is she the one? Read on to find out…

Emilia Russu – “If Only You”

Emilia Russu – “If Only You” reviews

William: Pass the tissues — Emilia is having a moment. She oozes pain, sadness and anger well and I can tell she knows heartbreak. Unfortunately she doesn’t seem to know the right producers and songwriters as this sounds very 1985. The wailing towards the end of the track reminds me of a cat in heat — though slightly less musical.

Score: 5/10

Bogdan: “If Only You” is a Spanish/Greek/British/Moldovan production that sounds excellent in the studio version, but was disappointing live, as if the singer had a cold. Despite the fact that the song bears all the marks of an epic power ballad, it’s like Emilia bit off more than she can chew. Nonetheless, we’ll probably see this in the Moldovan final. If Emilia doesn’t have a cold that night, she might even get a place somewhere at the front of the pack.

Score: 7/10

Deban: “If Only You” is a soaring ballad that is beautifully crafted. However, Emilia Russu’s delivery lacks the delicate touch this composition requires. If Maria Elena Kyriakou were singing this ballad, it would take flight and score multiple sets of douze points.  Unfortunately, in its current state, it just drags.

Score: 5.5/10

Chris: Emilia’s vocal starts strong but quickly turns more in to a warble. This problem is exacerbated in the final chorus, which is clearly meant to be a much more powerful moment in the song. That just never comes through though, making the whole thing fall entirely flat. Disappointing on many levels.

Score: 3/10

Robyn: As others have noted, this is a well written ballad, but Emilia doesn’t quite have the chops to give the performance the song is crying out for. The worst part is the wail in the middle, which literally sounds like a cat in heat. I want to cut her a bit of slack, but if she doesn’t improve by the semi-final, it’s over.

Score: 5/10

In our Moldova Wiwi Jury, we have 17 jurors but only room for 5 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below: 

Anthony: 3.5/10

Antranig: 5.5/10

Bernardo: 6/10

Cinan: 7/10

Dayana: 3/10

Jason: 6.5/10

Josh: 4/10

Kristin: 3/10

Luis:  2.5/10

Patrick:  5/10

Sami:  4/10

Zakaria:  4/10

 

 

 

 

 

Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 2.5 and a high of 7.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 4.67/10

SEE OUR LIST OF O MELODIE PENTRU EUROPA RANKINGS

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7 years ago

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Purple Mask
Purple Mask
7 years ago

I agree with Deban. I like the song, but this is a poor delivery. Actually I was thinking more of Aliona Moon for this song, but Maria Elena Kyriakou would do nicely. 🙂

cheesecake
cheesecake
7 years ago

Her voice… I’m really not a fan.
And the song is a couple of decades late for Eurovision. Yes, even for Eurovision.

Tom
Tom
7 years ago

The song is nice